BattleCON G13 - KingdomAces (Lixis) vs. Zorblag (Seth)

[KingdomAces]

Spoiler: Pregame

1: Force Special Dash
2: Pruning Burst
Finisher: Virulent Miasma

[KingdomAces]

Spoiler: Beat 1

Vine Grasp

[KingdomAces]

Pass

[KingdomAces]

So, I can only get clashes when I'm not actually trying.

Spoiler: Beat 1 - Clash 1

Vine

Grasp

Shot

[KingdomAces]

Actually, I think I'll leave you there.

[KingdomAces]

Spoiler: Beat 2

Naturalizing Drive

Your Ante first

[KingdomAces]

Pass

[KingdomAces]

Advance 2.

[KingdomAces]

ooooLoS

Lixis 15/4
Naturalizing Drive
Vine Shot

Seth 17/4
Fool's Shot
Compelling Burst, Strike

[KingdomAces]

Spoiler: Beat 3

I'll force you to use it this time, someone is taking 5 damage.
Pruning Lance

Spoiler: Opening Ante

None

[KingdomAces]

Pass

[KingdomAces]

Okay, I considered that also, but didn't think it was worth Bursting over. Especially since you did no damage and now you don't have either Omen or Dodge.

Spoiler: Beat 4

Vine Strike

No Ante

[KingdomAces]

Pass

[KingdomAces]

Are you sure you don't want to advance 2? It gets you out of the corner.

For about 5 seconds.

Yeah, that seems right. You can stay there. I'll get to my move later.

[KingdomAces]

Spoiler: Beat 5

Venomous Shot

[KingdomAces]

Pass

[KingdomAces]

In the category of beats where Dodge is a much better option than Dash would have been...

I was actually considering advancing here, which was even part of the reason why I used Venomous, but Fool's makes doing that pointless since Fool's Dash is a free escape that I can't even try to clash with.

I'm going to have to think about this one a bit longer.

[KingdomAces]

Spoiler: Beat 6

If you don't Wyrding Dodge (Lance), then this turn is a true 50/50 between Pruning Lance and Grasp. So therefore, I'll take the third option, assuming you'll do the one move out of it. I don't care that I've never been right when I've tried to force a clash before, and that you're probably expecting it this time.
Rooted Dodge

[KingdomAces]

Pass

[KingdomAces]

Finally called one.

Spoiler: Beat 6 - Clash 1

Rooted

Dodge

Grasp

[KingdomAces]

Get in your corner.

[KingdomAces]

(AKA Push 1, if that wasn't obvious.) I think you also have to discard either Dodge or Shot.

[KingdomAces]

Yeah, not pulsing.

Spoiler: Beat 7

Vine Lance
If you do anything Drive, then Pruning Strike kills you. I'm betting on the chance that you're not going to risk it. If you use Fool's or Vanishing Dodge, you avoid the attack, but I believe positioning favors me. Anything else and you get hit and stunned. Unless I'm missing something obvious, which isn't out of the question.

Spoiler: Ante

Priority +2

[KingdomAces]

Pass

Spoiler: Conditional action if you don't pass

Pass again. I'd at least try to pretend that if you Soak/Power, then I'd counter it though. If you follow this up with anything other than a pass, I don't know what it would be, so I'd want to see it.

[KingdomAces]

That was the point. I forget exactly why I thought that was the favorable outcome, but I thought about it a lot so I'm not doubting myself.

[KingdomAces]

Spoiler: Beat 8

Pruning Shot

Spoiler: Ante

Priority +2

[KingdomAces]

I'm pretty sure your only option is Compelling Drive. If I'm wrong though, this is going to make me look like an idiot.

Stun Guard 2

[KingdomAces]

Soak 1

[KingdomAces]

Wait, the Soak was supposed to be only if you got the Beyond Eyes right. Oh well, it can't hurt. Except for the fact that it could lose me the game, but eh. I'll roll with it. More insurance in case I miscalculated.

Anyway, I'm out of force, so pass.

[KingdomAces]

...yeah I did forget something. The fact that you could push me away with Compelling instead of bringing me closer.

*Sigh*
At least I'm still leading, and you still can't hit me.

[KingdomAces]

And for the record, the priority was 100% a bait. I didn't want you having Finisher this beat, if you survived the last one. Whether or not that was the right move in retrospect I can't say, but you having less Force is always a good thing.

[KingdomAces]

No, I spent it. By I didn't mean to spend it on Soak, I meant I wanted to spend it on Power instead. There is absolutely no way I would have passed there.

[KingdomAces]

Oh, and yeah I know I would have beat you if you didn't counter Priority, but I just assumed that you would.

Spoiler: Beat 9

Force Special Grasp
Switch Finishers

[KingdomAces]

Pass

[KingdomAces]

Spoiler: Beat 10

Rooted Dash

Pass

[KingdomAces]

And Pass

[KingdomAces]

Pass

[KingdomAces]

Advance 2

[KingdomAces]

Er, no make that 3.

[KingdomAces]

Spoiler: Beat 11

Vine Burst

[KingdomAces]

Pass

[KingdomAces]

Don't you get to move me before that though? Even if Dodge is at start of beat, I'd think that Compelling would still activate at Priority 3.

[KingdomAces]

Retreat 2.

[KingdomAces]

And I think I'm done for the day. This looks like it's going to be close, so I don't want to blow it by doing something stupid.

[KingdomAces]

I may actually want to pulse to Retreat 1, but isn't pulse End of Beat, and Force gain in Recycle? I'm too tired to look up the rules right now.

[KingdomAces]

Spoiler: Beat 12

This is a perfect turn for you to use your finisher, because there's practically nothing I can do about it. But I can Naturalizing Drive or Lance if I ante for priority. Here's hoping you try to counter that instead.
Force Special Strike.

[KingdomAces]

Pass

[KingdomAces]

Pass

[KingdomAces]

So, I assume you retreat 1 and I take 1 damage.

I mostly did it for the Soak, but I don't think I realized it didn't even have a chance of hitting unless you Bursted with something other than Vanishing.

[KingdomAces]

For some reason I make plans revolving around Vanishing, and then at the last minute I always forget that it's not just +1 range retreat 1. I

think

I've gotten the hang of everything else, but that still making me do stupid stuff.

[KingdomAces]

You had absolutely no reason to stand still though. Drive and Burst were the only two ways you could hit me, and I don't think anything that isn't trying to hit me would be advantageous for you at this point.

Spoiler: Beat 13

Venomous Dodge

Spoiler: Ante

Pass

This game, I think I've been focusing way too much on abusing my Stun Guard, and assuming that I'm going to fail to stun you no matter what I do. I think that Lixis is favored in the Seth matchup on paper, I've just not been playing as well as I could. Or maybe I just look at Seth's styles and see them all as being mediocre, even though they cover each other and make it a lot harder to come up with sweeping counters than it is for my options.

For the whole set, I think my two biggest problems were being too afraid of Omen, and not realizing that you actually win from long range, between Fools, Vanishing, and Omen (Shot).

Or I could just have no clue what's going on. I don't know.

[KingdomAces]

Pass

[KingdomAces]

I think I'll just keep passing.

[KingdomAces]

Eh, I was convinced that you were going to Wyrding Omen. I think the only way I could have survived this beat would have been either Rooted or Naturalizing with the extra soak, and I'm bot sure what I could have done from there.

I'll think about what I'd want to do next later. I was thinking of Tanis, but that would ruin the whole simplicity thing.

[KingdomAces]

^ apparently took me 20 minutes to write. Yeah, I'm too out of it right now to make any meaningful decisions. (Which what to ante here was not.)

[KingdomAces]

I just assumed that you were going to Beyond Eyes Lance every single turn, or otherwise wanted to save it for something better. That card is probably the main reason I like Lixis, so the fact that I barely actually used it shows how much I was afraid of your ability.

Naturalizing, I didn't really use because I didn't think I'd ever stun with it, and thought it would be more effective to go for damage because I was trying to get around Beyond Eyes in other ways rather than purposefully triggering it. Because of Omen. I'd have to look back, but I think that was not something I was doing the first game, because I forgot it existed. Getting stunned by it once during a turn when I used Naturalizing and thought I had a guaranteed hit was enough to push me off it for the rest of the set.

But yeah, break.

[KingdomAces]

I think I'm ready whenever you are. (Or at least I will be by the next time I'm on a computer.)

Cadenza seems to have a lot of raw power, but Tanis has a lot of weird things that she can do. In addition to the faux teleportation, there's ignore stun guard and ignore soak, and what seems just silly to me, Playful. Which seems like it should pretty much make Battery useless. Still, this is probably a terrible decision on my part. I really want to try this character though.